The Truth
by DisLeviathan5
Summary: When Shepard wakes up on the run to the beam, she must walk the hardest walk of her life
1. Awakening

The Truth- Awakening

Shepard woke up in a pool of blood. A high pitched hum surrounded her, and fire burned into the sky. The air was filled with smoke and debris, twirling through the black of the night. The smell of burning hair and dead bodies caught at the back of her throat, and she gave a small splutter. She found an M3 Predator by her side, and grasped onto the unwavering metal. Having a gun gave her a kind of comfort she didn't often find, apart from when she spent time with Garrus. Garrus Vakarian. C-Sec officer. Archangel. One time mercenary. Reaper adviser.

Lover.

Where was he? Safe, in the cold space, on the Normandy? The last thing Shepard remembered before being hit was calling in the Normandy, sending him and Kaidan off, to somewhere safe. To rejoin Sword. Which, she supposed, was anything but safe. Or was he dead, in a smouldering pile of wreckage, his corpse slowly broiling? She didn't want to think like that. It wouldn't help in the slightest, contemplating the fate of her loved one.

Shepard stood up slowly, and coughed blood into her palm. It was dark, and flecked with dirt, and bits of metal. Her implants must have smashed, or at least some of them. She hoped nothing vital was gone. At this point, she would need it.

She took another step forward, and groaned with the pain and decided to take a moment to look at her surrounding. She looked forward at the beam. Three prongs rose from the ground, surrounding a conduit of pure energy, which sent up bits of debris and bodies, alive or otherwise, to the Citadel. From here, the Citadel was a golden cocoon, made of futuristic metals. A ring, known as the Presidium, formed the centre of the shell, and five long, triangular arms, known as the Wards, extended forward, into a cone, of sorts, with a large, impregnable shell Inside was a large city, and the Citadel tower. The Citadel Tower is the seat of galactic government, where representatives of the four council races would meet, to discuss and debate important issues. To enforce the decisions, the Council have the Spectres, an elite force of agents capable of operating outside of rules and regulations. The first human Spectre was Shepard, followed 3 years later by Kaidan Alenko. Kaidan was the Staff Lieutenant with Shepard during the Geth attack on the Citadel 3 years prior, and headed a biotics division in the Alliance.

Shepard felt her mind begin to wander. She forced her mind to focus on the task at hand. Harbinger loomed above her, and she scrambled to the side, behind an overturned Mako, and scanned the area, looking at the pile of bodies and recognising...

A face she would never forget.

A pile of bodies, all scalped, lay to Shepards side. Each had white and pink armour, and a soft caring face. It could only be one person.

Ashley.


	2. Illusions

**The Truth- Illusions  
**

**Shepard's vision began to blacken, and she shook her head, but it didn't help. The last goodbye she heard from Ash, the sound of the nuclear blast rocking through the planet, the feeling that hung through the Normandy after her death- it all flashed through her mind. Shepard's already damaged legs gave way, and her arms pressed into the ground to stop her head from being damaged. Her mind felt murky, and she tried to make sense of things.  
It couldn't be Ash. Ash died on Virmire, and her body would have been vaporised in the blast. It was the Reapers, trying to destroy her reason. She got to her feet and forced herself to look, and she began to focus, where she saw the bodies of more Alliance soldiers, rather than the multiple corpses of Ashley Williams.**

**Shepard saw a dark shadow pass over her, and knew Harbinger had rejoined the fight above Earth, and the run to the conduit was clear. Shepard limped out, and stepped towards the beam, where she could feel the energy start to whip around her face. 3 husks stepped out from behind a steaming piece of metal. Quick as a flash, a bullet entered each of their heads, and they fell to the ground, the gruesome features of the once-humans illuminated by the beam. Shepard stepped over each body, and thought to herself, how many creatures had she killed? Geth, Collectors, Cerberus Forces. With the exception of the Geth Heretics, almost everything she had killed had been acting against it's own will. The Collectors were simply Prothean husks, being controlled by the Reapers, forced to do it's malevolent bidding. And the Cerberus forces were all given Reaper implants. They were being controlled by The Illusive Man, who is in turn being controlled by the Reapers. There was no other reason to tell the Reapers about the need of the Citadel. The Illusive Man believe he can control the Reapers, and fight them on his own terms, but he's wrong. He also believed that he could control Shepard into doing his bidding, but that attempt failed, and the Collector Base in the Galactic core was destroyed. Even with the added power of the Crucible, it would be harder to dominate the Reapers than to dominate Shepard, and everyone had seen how Illusive Man had failed at that. No, destroy was the only way. She was sure of it.**

**A Marauder popped out of the shadows, and before Shepard could react, fired his pistol at Shepard. The first bullet pierced her shoulder, and she stepped backwards with the impact, as a second round flew wide. Shepard lifted the Predator, which felt like it was becoming heavier, and fired two bullets. The first bullet hit the Marauder in the chest, and destroyed it's shields. The second round entered the Turian equivalent of it's forehead, and the body fell to the ground. Shepard looked at it. Originally it was a Turian, with a life, and friends, and maybe even kids. But the Reapers had converted it, and the corpse beneath her boot was nothing more than a shell. A psychological tool of the Reapers, to make people think twice about shooting a comrade. And it was that kind of thinking that could destroy galactic civilisation. One second of hesitation...**

**Shepard stepped towards the beam. The light began to blind her, so she shielded her face. The force began to pull her in, so she began to step quicker to regain her balance. Finally, she staggered into the centre, and she was fired into space. **


End file.
